Memphis Injury Lawyer Blog

As current events unfold, I look back on the reasons that I went to law school and how these events may cause all Tennesseans to remember the phrase "Equal Justice Under The Law". When I graduated from what is now the University of Memphis Law School, I was filled with all of the idealism that one would expect from a child of the 60's. Being raised in East Memphis, I still remember seeing National Guard tanks rolling through the intersection of Poplar Avenue and White Station Road following the murder of Dr.Martin Luther King. My mind still contains a clear picture of my fellow citizens dressed in olive drab uniforms patrolling the streets with bayonets afixed to their rifles.

Now that our country has elected Barack Obama as our first African-American President, I pause today to reflect upon my own values after over thirty years as a Memphis trial lawyer. Anyone who deals, day in and day out, with the problems of others becomes somewhat jaded to all of the violent emotions that swirl around him. Professional distance becomes a shield that protects not only one's own psychological well being, but it also assures that we can continue to give unbiased advice to those who place their futures into our hands. I do not know why but today I was drawn to the story of three young people who were murdered and buried in an earthen dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi over forty years ago. My mind wandered back to "Mississippi Burning" compared to my recollections of 1964. Mississippi Burning Trial

As a result of this mental wanderlust, I have blown the dust off of some of the information respecting Andrew Goodman, James Earl Chaney, and Michael Henry Schwerner. This process reminded me of a great trial lawyer who fought to assure that these young men, after a fashion, received at least a small measure of justice. This man is John Michael Doar.

Doar was born in 1921 in New Richmond, Wisconsin. His father, W.T. had taken a job in a law firm in this small essentially all white town. This solidly catholic community imbued John with his credo: "Do the right thing regardless of the consequences." This ideal is precisely what led Doar to face an angry brick throwing mob in 1963 in Jackson, MS. The warring factions were the Jackson Police Department and a throng of grief stricken African Americans who were mourning the death of Medgar Evers. With outstretched empty hands, Doar approached and quelled the violence with an act that must be historically likened to single-handedly forestalling the Boston Massacre.

In a 1985 interview, Doar remembers:

Well, I went to the funeral. And uh, because I knew Medgar. And uh, he was a friend, and uh, then uh, the his friends, people from all over the country came to the funeral wanted to have a march and they wanted to march up the main street in Jackson. I can't remember the name of the street, but it was, Jackson had one main street principally. And the police officials didn't want them to do that, they said that they could walk across and then walk into a side street where the uh, black restaurants and the black stores were where blacks congregated a side street which was the typical pattern in a Southern town in 1960. There was a street for whites and a street for blacks – and the black street was a side street and a 2nd class street. And the police permitted the par—the marchers, the memorial march to cross the main street, but then finish up in the side street where the b—the black shops were. And it was a nice day, warm day, summer day, and uh, uh, I remember that there were a lot of kids around, and uh, and uh, uh, it was a friendly, but there was a lot of people milling around the streets and then some kids, I don't know who they were decided that they would march up the main street. And so they started back along toward the main street of Jackson and when they got to the corner of this side street that I've described, and the main street, the police put up a road block, put up a line of people and, and, block, and said you can't, you can't march on the main street of Jackson, Mississippi. And, so you had a line of police and you had a line of kids, or 3 lines of kids, and they were 2 or 3 feet apart and the, the kids were singing and agitating, and yelling and shouting and complaining and, and uh, then who pushed who first, I can't tell you but the police started to reach out and grab one, five, six of these kids and throw ‘em in the paddy wagon. And uh, uh, they uh, got the… that stopped. And then they decided that they would clear the street. This, this is the city police of Jackson. And they started to move along this side street uh, and to disperse the crowd. Uh, as uh, they moved further and further into the side street, and I was there observing as a representative of the Justice Department, and, and as they moved farther down the street, kids started to throw bottles and rocks from nobody was uh, close to getting hurt, and the city police were disciplined and controlled and moving slowly up the street in a line across the entire block. And when they got about a block up the street, the uh, the county uh, Sheriff's Office, uh supplemented this line of police with County Deputies and they had guns, shot guns, and uh, my, I didn't think that uh, they had the discipline that the City police officers did. And uh, so half a block down the street, a, a, black kid had come out of the crowd and throw a bottle and it had bounced in front of this line of police and the glass had skidded into them, or a rock had come out or a brick had come out and it had hit, hit the street in front of ‘em and skidded into em, and uh, I was just afraid that if this kept on that somebody was really going to get hurt because I didn't have any confidence in the discipline of those county officers. So I walked through the, the uh, the line of police and walked out and persuaded everybody to stop.

Shortly thereafter, Doar guided the investigation and trial of 18 Mississippians for civil rights violations which arose from the deaths of Goodman, Chaney and Schwermer. Not only was this a dangerous task but in addition to all of the obvious legal obstacles, Doar faced incredible racism within the Grand Jury itself. You see, these white jurors had to rely upon and believe the witnesses testimony many of whom were black. An internal FBI memo from 1964 illuminates this problem better than my poor words See, A. Rosen letter. Following what can only be mildly described as a contentious trial, The New York Times reported a guilty verdict against the Defendants from Doar's efforts:

MISSISSIPPI JURY CONVICTS 7 OF 18 IN RIGHTS KILLINGS MERIDIAN, Miss., Oct. 20     A Federal Court jury of white Mississipians convicted seven men today for participating in a Ku Klux Klan conspiracy to murder three young civil rights workers in 1964.     Guilty verdicts were returned against Cecil R. Price, 29 years old, the chief deputy sheriff of Neshoba County, and Sam H. Bowers Jr., 43, of Laurel, identified as the Imperial Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan.  Also convicted were Horace D. Barnette, a one-time Meridian salesman; Jimmy Arledge, 30, a Meridian truck driver; Billy Wayne Posey, 30 a Williamsville service station operator; Jimmie Snowden, 34, a Meridian laundry truck driver, and Alton W. Roberts, 29, a Meridian salesman.

However, this victory was bittersweet. This was not a conviction for murder but was rather a short term imprisonment verdict and not all who took part were found guilty. The most notable escapee from justice was Edgar Ray Killen. It was not until 41 years later that the scales of justice equalized a bit. The Court, entered a nearly unheard of manslaughter guilty verdict against Edgar Ray Killen, a/k/a "The Preacher", and sentenced the KKK ring leader to the maximum punishment that the State of Mississippi could mete out: sixty years in prison.

Today, on the eve of a new era in American politics, we should all in Doar's words "persuade everybody to stop." We must all stop judging the veracity of a person's words based upon their ethnic origin. We must assure that all persons have equal access to qualified legal representation. And, we must all recognize that this fresh new wind that is blowing across our country has a chance of securing the blessings of liberty for the future of all of our children.